India to give annual climate report to UN

In a major concession to rich countries before December’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh has offered an annual report to the Union Nations on India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and measures to reduce it.

Updated on: Sep 27, 2009, 01:04:13 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

In a major concession to rich countries before December’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, environment and forests

The opposition

* Sunita Narian, director, Centre for Science and Environment, says, “The minister should first seek people’s permission for making such an offer which’ll have huge implications for India.”

* Sirish Sinha, head, climate change and energy section, World Wildlife Fund-India, says annual reporting to the UN will make it difficult for India to push for a “business as usual scenario”.

minister Jairam Ramesh has offered an annual report to the Union Nations on India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and measures to reduce it.

Under the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, only rich countries are required to submit annual reports on their commitment to reduce GHGs.

There is no such binding requirement for developing countries such as India and China, which submit their national declarations on climate change once in six years.

India’s annual report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will tighten global monitoring regulations on its climate-change policies, according to experts.

India is expected to become the third-largest GHG emitter by 2030 from its present fifth position.

“An annual communication to the UN will say what we’re doing, what the results are, how’s it being implemented, the impact,” Ramesh told Hindustan Times on Saturday, after returning from New York, where the offer was made at a UN summit on climate change.

“We want to be transparent to the international community, but domestically accountable to our voters,” the minister added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.